For my first public meeting, I decided to attend the Hillsborough County School Board Meeting held in downtown Tampa.
My preconceived notions heading into this meeting was the fact that this was just going to be some boring meeting where all these elderly people will decide what’s good and bad for all the public schools.
I also figured that while the board welcomes the general public to come to the meetings and address any issues they have with the school board, I figured they would just let them speak their mind and just completely forget about the concerns brought up by the parents.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Not only was the school board concerned with what’s going on with their schools, they also allowed the public to speak and took an interest in what they said even if it wasn’t relevant to any of the topics on the agenda.
For example, two private security companies came to the meeting because they didn’t know who else to approach about getting contracts with Hillsborough County Public Schools. They think that if the schools hire the private security companies it will create more competition and instead of having the Hillsborough county officers in the schools, the officers could be more useful to the city by patrolling streets and preventing crime instead of supervising middle and high school kids.
Another big topic on the agenda was virtual instruction or virtual school. The county wants to make virtual instruction a requirement for graduation for all high school students, because not only it would introduce them to online learning, it will help them for the long term when they go on to college and take online classes.
It would also expand resources for homeschooled children, teen mothers and would help meet the class amendment laws. Expanding virtual school would save the district $97,800.52.
Next item on the agenda was the Grant Application Approvals which totaled at $92,000 and they are used to “support the literacy initiatives…health literacy curriculum and literacy resources for adult basic education, GED, ESOL for adults.” They are supposed to help people that want to further their education or become more “self-sufficient” in the community.
I enjoyed going to the meeting because not only did learn about how Hillsborough County is trying to help their schools but that they do care and it’s not just about politics. I also got to get some first-hand experience as to how the meetings are run.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Preston Trigg: Government Budgets
On Thursday, Preston Trigg, Director of Administration & Special Projects for the Hillsborough County Tax Collector's office, returned to our Public Affairs Reporting class to explain how to understand government budgets.
Trigg explained that in journalism, you have to work through or around budgets, saying that it is unavoidable. He also explained that every government agency has their budgets available and that the government budgets in Florida are open to the public.
Before Trigg came into class, I didn’t know what was on a government budget. From his lecture, I learned that most government budgets are balanced, except federal budgets and in the state of California where budgets aren’t balanced.
Trigg noted to us that government budgets consisted of two components; revenue and expenses, revenues bringing money in and expenses meaning money going out.
When reporting on revenue, look for major increases and decreases as it can tell you a lot about government revenue.
Trigg explained that there were also three different types of expenses: Personnel, Capital, and Operating. Personnel expenses dealt with money associating with people. Capital expenses are usually one time purchases of anything over $1000 dollars. Operating expenses are usually recurring.
Trigg even showed us what a government budget spreadsheet looked like with all the different color coding meaning different things.
The most important thing I took out of Trigg’s visit was that when reporting, don’t report falsely. If you don’t know, you must ask.
Trigg explained that in journalism, you have to work through or around budgets, saying that it is unavoidable. He also explained that every government agency has their budgets available and that the government budgets in Florida are open to the public.
Before Trigg came into class, I didn’t know what was on a government budget. From his lecture, I learned that most government budgets are balanced, except federal budgets and in the state of California where budgets aren’t balanced.
Trigg noted to us that government budgets consisted of two components; revenue and expenses, revenues bringing money in and expenses meaning money going out.
When reporting on revenue, look for major increases and decreases as it can tell you a lot about government revenue.
Trigg explained that there were also three different types of expenses: Personnel, Capital, and Operating. Personnel expenses dealt with money associating with people. Capital expenses are usually one time purchases of anything over $1000 dollars. Operating expenses are usually recurring.
Trigg even showed us what a government budget spreadsheet looked like with all the different color coding meaning different things.
The most important thing I took out of Trigg’s visit was that when reporting, don’t report falsely. If you don’t know, you must ask.
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